OCCUPY!!! Wealth re-distribution at El Camino College

Normally, our Thursday afternoon excursions to El Camino College are fairly placid affairs. But today, I was surprised to hear a chanting, hollering mob protesting on the campus. What’s an evangelist—with a whole lot of Gospel tracts—to do?

I like how you occasionally have absorbed the Fox News message so well that you just let the terminology slip out. (“Wealth redistribution,” in this case.) It kind of shows how you feel about the Occupy movement, Steve-0.

So, how do you feel about the economic inequity in America today? You know, from a biblical perspective – like in Matthew 6:24-25, Mark 10:25, 1 John 3:17, and like that.

Oh, and especially Proverbs 31:8 – “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.”

Here’s an article you may find interesting about this. (You may have to register to read it though.)

Here’s the first paragraph:

Maybe it was the timing – what with Occupy Everywhere and the ubiquitous “I-am- the- 99%” tales of woe. But Messiah College’s Nov. 9 debate “Is Capitalism moral?” drew an unusually large crowd for a weeknight. And the 1,200 in attendance weren’t just students – who’d been promised the event would count for chapel – but a heavy contingent of people who’d come from miles around to hear social justice advocate Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners, and public policy analyst Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, in what promised to be a lively debate.

OK, so I’m getting mixed messages here. It’s looking like you meant “wealth redistribution” ironically; on the other hand, you’ve used Fox News buzz words and phrases often enough that it’s reasonably easy to see where you stand on most issues. But I repeat the question.

The El Camino Occupy has some valid concerns, i.e., the increase in admins pay at the expense of student classes, etc. The Wall Street movement and it’s ancillary alliances seem to be a little unfocused and irresponsible.

“Failed”? He’s not a complete Fox News zombie (hence, something positive about the El Camino movement), but you DID notice the rest of that statement, right?

Steve,

Well, without a GOP commissioner (google “Dick Armey Tea Party” sometime) keeping the group focused laser-like on… whatever it is that the astroturfed Tea Party wants (“Taxed Enough Already” when your taxes are the lowest they’ve been in decades?), a true grass roots movement has a hard time seeming “organized. Particularly with a corporate media trained to spread the latest talking points by Carl Rove.

But the primary goal is correcting the broken economic system that’s given us greater income inequity than most of the industrialized world, at levels approaching the Great Depression.

The majority of the Occupy protestors aren’t “destitute”. If they were they wouldn’t be wearing new clothes from Urban Outfitters, drinking fresh Starbucks coffee, camping out in NorthFace tents and sleeping in Pantagonia sleeping bags.

You’re right. Got the wrong name (I’m poking at Carl up above, you might notice).

You have a fascinating view of the Occupy movement. They’re all doing it ironically? Really? They can’t possibly be honestly concerned about economic inequity, can they? You don’t think that there’s any chance that they can see when the deck is stacked against everybody but the rich?

In boom times, all boats rise, right? And, all boats rise the same percentage, if you stop to think about it. This is why the gap widens between the top percent and the rest of us during these periods of time. Do the math. The same percentage of a greater base is a larger gain. But, it doesn’t matter during the boom times; because all boats are rising, it’s hardly noticed. It is only during the leaner transitions that it is noticed. And then we all shake our fists at those living on the top of the hills, as Marx used to say. But, we only have this greater disparity because of the incredibly long run of boom times, the longest in history for any civilization. Your thoughts?

My thought is that you’re being somewhat ridiculous. We aren’t in a “boom time” – a lot of economists are saying that the current recession actually qualifies as a depression, just not quite on a par with the Great D.

And all boats are NOT rising. Middle-class incomes have been stagnant for almost 30 years (here’s one report, although there are any number of studies out there to support it), while the super-rich incomes keep going up.

Seems like somebody in some famous book did something to the money-changers – I swear I’ve heard that before…